The Washington Post, calls on the Germans to look at their own financial past coping with the Greek crisis. The author of the article, titled “In Greek crisis, Germany should learn from its fiscal past”, Harold Meyerson, says it would be a disaster for Germany, strategically and financially, if Greece was obliged to abandon its debts and to come out of the Eurozone. As he points out, such a move would threaten the very existence of the union.
The journalist compares the government of SYRIZA to Konrad Adenauer in Germany, arguing that both were invited to save the mismanagement of their countries. “The new Greek government represents at least as clean a break with Greece’s previous mis-rulers as the Adenauer government did with Hitler’s. Its early appointments signal a novel development in Greek governance: a fight against the corruption and crony capitalism that have long corroded the nation’s economy,” writes Meyerson..
The author points out that although Germany has understood the lessons learned from the mistakes committed by the turn of the 20th century, ” it has not learned the costs of a mad adherence to fiscal orthodoxy, despite the fact that its prosperity is rooted in the decision of its World War II adversaries to allow West Germany’s postwar government to write off half of its debts.”.
The article says that after the collapse of 2008, Germany that is a dominant economic force in Europe, “has compelled Mediterranean Europe, and Greece in particular, to sack their own economies to repay their debts.” The article then refers to the persistence of Germany, who led Greece to destruction.
“Germany’s insistence has reduced Greece to a condition like that of the United States at the bottom of the Great Depression. Unemployment has soared to 25 percent, and youth unemployment to more than 50 percent ; the economy has shrunk by 26 percent and consumption by 40 percent. Debt has risen to 175 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. And the funds from the loans that Germany and other nations have extended to Greece have gone almost entirely either to cover interest payments or repay past loans; only 11 percent has actually gone to Greece’s government.” writes the newspaper.
Meyerson is not surprised by the choice of the Greek voters to vote for SYRIZA, a new government, that claims the renegotiation of the debt. The author draws attention to the London agreement in 1953 where 20 member states, including Greece, lent money to Germany in the Weimar Republic era and in 1945 they agreed to reduce the debt of Germany in half. Furthermore they agreed that the repayment would not come from the government’s spending but only from the exports income.
In conclusion, the columnist notes that “The world will be a better place when Germans know their history — all of it.”.
That’s the situation in Greece and we still stand with the people! It’s time for this fake global financial crisis created by this fake global economic system, to have an end. It’s time for all countries to claim this end by negotiating all together.
